Data Chatter

We have such a looooooong list of databases available here, that sometimes it seems overwhelming when you need to find something. Most of them aren't terribly useful for us down here, but some are fun.

Sanborn maps is one of my favorites to play with. The downside is that once you've used it to find your house throughout the last hundred or so years, there's no need to go back and revisit. Searching for my parents' house was a bust, but I was able to find my building, which was built in 1926 and named Scoville Manors. My friend Michele grew up down in southern IL, and her family owned the local funeral parlor. So I also went to her town, and watched the family business move and grow, and that was pretty fun, too. It's clunky as all hell to use, but the information is at least useful and interesting.

Some of the classes in Universal Class are really good - I read through some of the photography text books and learned a lot. One of the recommended texts for the Babysitting 101 class is an American Girl nonfiction book, so this might be a good resource for tweens getting ready to sit on their own.

Kidwise, I think the WorldBook databases are pretty comprehensive and easy to use. Grolier is also great, but currently unavailable remotely. (Eric is working to fix that.)

I've had the Overdrive Console loaded on my work computer since we got the new ones, and I've used it in the past, but now it's only playing mp3 audiobooks and not the wma format. (Sadly for me, the Doctor Who titles are wma.) It probably just needs an update, or maybe Windows Media does, which is only problematic here where I need IT to do all that for me.

I'm not totally sold on the idea of a dedicated eReader for myself, since Stanza on my Touch works so well, but I liked being able to play with the Nooks and Sony. I like how fast the Nook Color moves, but I don't like the screen or needing to swipe to turn the page. The black and white Nook has a similar eInk format that a Kindle has, which is excellent for reading, and has perfectly placed buttons for turning pages, but each page refreshed SO SLOWLY OMG. It took a few seconds, and for part of that, both the old page and new page are overlaid on top of each other. It's a mess. The Sony had similar refreshing issues, although less slow, and the buttons were very awkwardly placed. I'll stick with the iTouch for now.

I was really, really surprised to see how easy it is to download anything from MOD and move it to any of these devices. When I tried it in grad school, it was horribly clunky, but they've really made some good strides. It really was as simple as drag and drop and go. (Okay, that's after you've installed all the software, which is still an annoyance.) Still, I think it'll be worth downloading the Console to my home computer and putting the audiobooks on my iPod, instead of just using the Overdrive app on my iTouch. (Which is super easy to use but, like my work computer, can only load mp3 audios.)

Databasics

Looking through our kids' databases I was reminded/made aware that:

• it's good to look through our databases...because it's easy to forget what we've got, even without the annual updates!
• during African-American HistoryMonth, I should definitely show patrons the African-American History Online database when they ask for relatively obscure bios.
• LearningExpressLibrary and Tutor.com both have older elementary math and reading reviews/preps, though neither really put things like worksheets front and center.
• World Book Online for Kids has a very short article entitled "Animals Have Babies." Now I'm dying for a kid to ask me whether or not animals have babies...and whether I can prove it.
• the Gale student Resources In Context is amazing for helping older kids with projects on "big issues."

Looking through our adult databases I was reminded/made aware that:

• though we offer access to the more-and-more popular Ancestry.com, it's only available here at the Library.
• the American History In Video db is the most splendid thing EVER. A mix of contemporary, documentary, and vintage films all about America. As far as I can tell, most of the videos come with transcripts, but I especially love the soundless ones from the turn of the last century, like this one.
• INFOTRAC is a big deal/portal.
• Oh, yeah! We've got access to Consumer Reports. So cool.

Finally, I tried to download the Overdrive Media Console to my work PC figuring it'd be easy peasy...but so far I can't get around the "you can't download nuthin'" rules for these PCs. I'll ask Shelley or Curt if it's possible. Looking forward to the technology petting zoo Shelley's bringing us next week! [I wish I could have put in on my personal Kindle, but Amazon is a harsh mistress.]

Unit Three Adventures

I'm glad we're doing this, even if I can't seem to remember my login name and password for google reader. If I don't at least try new technologies I'll just get farther and farther behind. I don't see alot of people besides staff contributing to the the teen website. Maybe teens are too self conscious? I wonder how Amazon does it? I used to bookmark alot of websites so I liked Delicious. I'd love to see a library wide calender including both library sponsored and private events listed, so maybe Google docs could accomplish that. I can also see it for things like what supplies to order, what to buy for Storystop etc. I'd like to do a pre Harry Potter event called Bookopoly so here's my list of goofy activities so far!

Technology Adventure, Unit Four

Unit four: Databases
3/21-4/3

Explore databases: We have a ton of databases, with something for everyone. Start exploring on our Study page, and then branch off to the adult tools. Find your house in Sanborn maps, find some new-to-you artists in American Song, learn about your co-workers' auras in Universal Class, find out why NSYNC is listed in the Culinary Arts database, etc.

Media On Demand: We all need to have more practice with this when patrons ask. Please download Overdrive Media Console to your computer and/or eReader. Kindles are not supported, unfortunately, but iPhones, Androids, Blackberries, Nooks and Sonys are, among others.

Starting Monday, March 28, I will have the Sony Reader, Nook, iPad, Nano and a laptop from the Tech Toolkit down here for us to practice loading downloadables. (Use the laptop to transfer audiobooks to the Nano, as well as to use Adobe Digital Editions to read eBooks.) You can set up a time to go over some of the steps with me, if you like. ATS is also hosting an Overdrive training on March 24 and 25 – even if you attend one of those, please take extra time to play and familiarize yourself with the devices, steps and potential pit-falls.

On your Mobile device, search for the Overdrive app and download. For desktops, follow the directions in Quick Start Guide, from the top left sidebar. Once you have it downloaded, browse the titles and check out an audiobook or eBook.

Post on the blog about what you’ve learned – share a database that will be useful on the desk, another that was just fun, tell us about your experiences with Overdrive, etc. Don’t forget to tag/label it “unit four.”

More toe dipping

So, I got kind of frustrated with Delicious. I think it's the sheer volume of bookmarks that make my head hurt a bit from too much information all at once. I do like Google Reader, and I think it will be useful in selection (as Danny pointed out) but also for keeping track of programming blogs/ideas. There are a LOT of great things out there for storytime ideas. I'd like to collaborate more with google docs, particularly spreadsheet data across departments. This was another great lesson. Extra thanks to Rory for showing me how to use tabs in firefox--I'll save so much time!

I'm totally gonna blog about this later

At first, I was reluctant to use Google Reader. I wanted to keep my internet experience fun and casual, and I was afraid that an RSS feed would dilute the joy of random blog discovery. Then I was given responsibility for the graphic novel collection, and I suddenly realized there are 100 million comics blogs. So I made a Reader account and I couldn’t be happier with the results. It makes selecting so easy and efficient for me. That probably won’t be the case for a lot of people in the department (Gennie pointed out that there aren’t a ton of Easy Readers blogs out there), but it sure was a godsend for me. Thanks, tech adventures!

I was a little less impressed with the rest of this unit. While they are probably useful tools, I had trouble finding a reason to use Delicious or Google Alerts/Docs (if you’re curious, I’ve compiled some research findings here). And apparently the comment I left on the teen site was rejected. Probably shouldn’t have cursed so much.

One other thing—I’ve been using Jennifer N.’s facebook wall as my own personal blog—I encourage you to join me.

You are a tool.

I am a fan of Delicious, though it took a while for me really to start using it. Most of my links are recipes, craft projects and gift ideas. If I'm away from home, I tend to just email myself a link and tag it later, which I know is completely ridiculous. I did remember my password, so I can access my stuff remotely (yay!), but I rarely need to. Sharing cool links amongst the department via the blog or email is still fine by me.




I've set up a Google Doc that I'd love for you all to add to! It's a spreadsheet of book characters and where they are from so that I can make a cool map for the SRP windows. Here's the link. But, honestly, I'd be just as happy printing it out and keeping a copy at the desk to add to. Which doesn't mean Google Docs is worthless to me, just this doc.



OPPL Teen I have mixed feelings about. (I still owe y'all a book review.) As a parent, I'd be more interested in having updates from Kids along the lines of "Tickets now available for T.R. Loon, Juggler!" or "Don't forget, ST break for the next two weeks." An email list or Facebook account would be fine for that. I don't think we'd get enough interactive participation to make it worthwhile for something broader.

Wow, I sound like a tech hater, huh? Basically, I'm a fan of all these things, but don't support getting too tech crazy (yet) just for the sake of newness. I can be swayed, though. Especially by cookies.

Dipping my toe in teen territory

I like the look of the teen web site a lot (the colors are great!) and it's very clear what's happening at the library today and next week. It was hard to figure out how to create a new book review at first, probably because the text was a little too small for me old eyes. Once I clicked on a particular review it was a bit confusing about where to go from there. I love how easy this is to contribute original content, and the navigation is fairly straightforward and clear. I'm not a huge fan of the polls (and "chairity" is spelled wrong), but maybe the kids like them?

late to the adventure, again

This was fun! I'm fond of my pen name (he's a former soccer player from El Salvador) and the picture. The full quote was an interesting one, too: "You can't love anyone until you understand that you can't love everyone."

Late to the game

I was on vacation, yadda yadda, but here's my unit 2 contribution! Flickr Explore was a fine way to waste time looking at plenty of nice pics, but as some of you found, most of the pictures there won't be available for download. So I created my own rules to find my image and used Advanced Search. Jenny asked about finding photos to use in our work and I do that a lot with Flickr, actually. In Advanced Search, scroll down to the bottom and click "Creative Commons License." Now, um... yeah, we should still be crediting these photos when we use them, but I rarely do. There, I've said it. For example, the donuts on the current DwD sign hanging on the slat wall were a Flickr find. If the owner of that photo ever finds out, I'll take the beating.

Since the explore thing was a bust for finding a saveable photo, I used Advanced search with Creative Commons and then limited to it photos uploaded on my birthday. The resulting set had alot more, shall we say, photos of questionable quality, but I was happy with the one I got.

I went with Picnik for the editing and loved it! Though I can see how it would be so easy to go overboard. Like when people constantly share photos they've retouched of their babies and everything is B&W except one item in bright color. Which can be really cool, but also really horrid. I've just offended 98% of the internets, durrrr. I should have changed the color or moved my author name a bit, in retrospect, but couldn't wait to bring you the latest tome of street wisdom from Newfoundland Two Dollar Coin, y'all.

Adventuring!

I used Google Docs to make a poll/form for you all to fill out: Getting to Know You. The answers automatically get sorted in a Google Spreadsheet file, which can be found here: Responses. It's editable, and I created a new column for you to guess who answered what.

*****
I am a huge fan of delicious.com, and have been for years. (Since it was at del.icio.us, even.) I have over 3500 links organized with several hundred tags, which makes it very easy to find what I'm looking for. I can even look for items with multiple tags (tagged both knitting & blog, for example) to further refine my search. I also use it to easily share links with people - when I'm saving it, I add the tag for:email@address.com and it gets sent with description to that address. Super handy. We can also set it up so that our bookmarks either update in our sidebar or get automatically sent as a new post here.

I think this could be something that could be very useful to us, both for all the fun links we share (like the Guardian one JN posted about) or things like prize ideas for SRP. The key is remembering to use it. Sometimes a habit just needs to get developed, or sometimes, a lack of using it just means that it doesn't fill a need.

Technology can be great, but the key is finding things that make your life simpler, rather creating a complication or adding to your to-do list. Tumblr is my example - it's a neat idea, and several of my friends are devoted users. But it doesn't fill any needs for me and is just yet another place I have to try and remember to check for content from my friends. (Although When Parents Text is usually worth checking.) On the other hand, when I discovered Polyvore, I was instantly hooked and found it very useful and fun, something I was glad to add. Google Reader is somewhere in the middle - it's duplicating some things that I already do, which means I'm less likely to use it, but it is much easier to access on the go with my iTouch. I might keep it up to date with favorite blogs just for that.

Rory brought up some good questions that we need to consider as we move forward with our website redesigns. Do we need to be as interactive as the teen site is now, put that much effort into things? What needs do our patrons have, and how can we fill them? That's what Anne is going to be working on when she comes back. I'm also interested in seeing the results of Jen M's patron polls, to see what they look for at our website. The more we think and plan now, the easier it will be when we redesign.

Guardian Children's Book Site

It would behoove you to check out this simply gorgeous site.
Cheers!

First off-- I have to say that I am amazed at how much work Shelley has put into this tutorial. Wow. (thanks!)
I did enjoy poking around on the teen site--I left a comment and a review and tried not to sound too much like a middle-aged stalker/poser.
I think that delicious.com will be helpful in terms of having a consolidated bookmark list for the department as a whole-- like many of these tools, however, I just have to actively remind myself to actually use them!
I'm sure I just need practice, but Google docs seemed clunky in terms of producing/editing a document. Not many fonts-- much harder to deal with than Publisher. (But I hesitate to criticize because anything I find difficult I'm sure is because I am a total newbie at this!)
Oh, and:
Shameless baby photos

Usernames and Passwords Galore

I like the design of OPPL Teens. I am sure teens will be drawn to it for that reason alone. I’d be interested to know how many hits they are getting. I also liked the interactive features, such as the online poll. Everything seems to be well organized and updated often.

I can see how any of these new technologies would be helpful for sharing information (planning events, presentations, committee work, etc.), especially if distance is involved. I think it is important to keep in mind that other people can erase your work and that you need to adjust your privacy settings to make sure your work isn’t on the open Web.

I manage most of my bookmarks in my web browser and I have a folder for my blogs. I migrated my blogs into Google Reader and organized them by category, so they are easier to find. I’m following several people but most of them do not actually use Google Reader just Gmail. I liked that Delicious has cloud tagging and that I can see how many bookmarks I have in each category. I'd like to give Bookmarklets a try and see if I can keep it up over time. Similar to Rory’s viewpoint, I spend so much time organizing information in my work email, school/ personal email, Google Calendar, and on social networking websites, like LinkedIn, GoodReads, etc. that it is nice not to be bogged down by too much technology. I feel like I have a millions different usernames and passwords that it is hard to keep track of them all.

Image Fun!

I love fooling around with pictures! I'd like to sign up for flickr myself. I wonder if any images are public use? For signs and posters? I love the way all three things just meshed with my book jacket. I've used Piknik before to fix up photos on our g drive but had forgotten about it. I think it's a lot easier than paint.Net but maybe Paint.Net is for experts. I managed to do this without too much help from Shelley so I'm feeling a little more confident.

Continuing the Adventure

Alright--this felt like a lot but no any one part was very hard. Thanks for continuing to challenge, engage and help us, Shelley!

* * * * *

As I mentioned in my comment on Shelley's post, I'm a completely devoted fan of Google and have been finding it more and more useful in more and more parts of my life. (I know our new Assistant Director would LOVE for us all to have corporate Google accounts, too, so that might be in the future for OPPL.)

I'd never used Google Alerts, though, so I added a couple: "lions" and "Peter Sarsgaard" (my favorite animal and my favorite celebrity crush). I'm not sure I really set the settings as well as I could though, because I've already gotten alerts to lots of websites which don't really even mention him. I think I'd better just set it to "news."

* * * * *

The Google Doc I'm sharing--IS LIVING WITH THE YUPPIES WORTH IT?--is something I put together a couple weeks ago after visiting the new apartment tower just above Trader Joe's. The vote's still out on whether my boyfriend and I will take the yup plunge, but I thought you might get a kick out of the pros/cons we're considering.



* * * * *
I've never used delicious.com, though I was familiar with it. I think my resistance comes from the same place as the part of me that decided to quit Twitter: sometimes I have to put in a locks and dams, mentally, to prevent myself from spending too much time (or, at least, too much FREE time) on the internetz. I also have other venues for sharing cool stuff: my blog, my e-newsletter about pop culture (remember! You should sign up for that by letting me know that...you know, you want to sign up for it!), and, of course, Facebook.

Anyway, it was still good to putz around delicious and it really was easy to add bookmarklets to my Firefox toolbar on my work computer. I added three for all of you to enjoy.

* * * * *
Sure, there are lots of stuff in this unit which we could use as a department or library (or already do use)...but I'm always worried about participation and burnout levels. For someone who uses a fair amount of technology and digital media to organize and inspire my own life, I find myself more and more resistant about including in my working life, or in libraries in general. Resistant--not quite reluctant :).

For example, I really dig (though I don't really "digg") the new teen website especially now that, for the purpose of this Technology Adventure, I've poked around it a bit more. But--and I hope I don't step on any toes here--I'm not convinced that a mid-size library's website needs to be this interactive. As far as I can tell, all of the content generation has been from staff so far.

I understand that you've got to build up interest and build up a backlog of stuff, but...that's a lot of staff time for something I doubt many patrons are looking for/at. Lots and lots of people are already feeling like they spend too much time online--even teens. And the time they do spend is already at social media sites (whether it be a behemoth like Facebook or a more niche, interest-based site like GoodReads) so what can we do to really attract them to spend much time at ours? And is it worth the effort? I suspect that the small number of kids who get involved will already be really library-centric, so it's probably not a promotion tool....

But, whatever. I wrote a review and submitted a review of a YA nonfiction title I read and loved this weekend.

* * * * *
Finally, I need to say this.

Technology Adventure, Unit Three

Unit three: Websites
3/7 - 3/20

OPPL Teen: This is the prototype for what our entire website will be like this time next year (hopefully). The backbone of this is interaction – polls, blog posts, book reviews, etc. Read through some of the recent blog posts and leave a comment. Read through some of the book reviews and leave one of your own. (Feel free to leave out your age and school.) If you want to see what the back end looks like, how to create a post, etc, ask Shelley for a demo.

Delicious: This is a site where you can save bookmarks and access it from any computer. We can use this to have a shared archive of useful or fun links. Like Flickr and Blogger, you can tag these for easy organization. I’ve gotten us started with a few links, but this is something we can all use.

Go to delicious.com and choose to sign in with a yahoo ID (the link is below the boxes for logging in.) Check your e-mail for the user name and password.

Go to Bookmarklets and follow the bookmarklet button directions for whichever browser you are using. (Note: for Internet Explorer, use Manual method instead of Easy.) Once you have this bookmarklet in your toolbar, all you need to do is click on this button when you are on a website you want to save, then up will pop a window where you tag it and give a description of what we will find there (in Notes). Save that, and delicious will automatically update to include it. Tags can’t include spaces. If you choose to make it private, only we will see it when we are logged in. Add a few tagged sites to share. Blogs you forgot to include in unit one, fun cracked.com article, whatever.

Of course, it’s hard to add a bookmarklet to the reference desk computers, since it resets every day. But you can go to delicious.com, log in, and click “save a new bookmark” in the top right blue box. Takes longer, same result.

If more than one person bookmarks a site, the numbers appear in a blue box. You can click the box to see who else liked it, what they tagged it, and follow their tags to find similar cool things.

RSS feed/Google Reader: Many of you already discovered that RSS feed readers make blog reading easier, because it sends all the posts from most blogs you like into one place for you to read. There are different choices that do the same thing, so pick your favorite. Ideas are Google Reader, Bloglines, or FeedDemon. It’s understandable to be concerned with giving Google so much control over your online life, but they do have a good service here and it’s also integrated with your Blogger account – you can read it at Google or Blogger.

If you don't already have a feed reader set up, create an account and add some blogs. For Google Reader, you click on Add Subscription on the far left. You can search by keyword for blogs to get some ideas, or browse Google’s bundles of topic suggestions. If you want to add a specific blog, you can go to its website and click on the orange box in the URL field. Choose to add it to your RSS feed and follow the prompts. You can add blogs and websites that update regularly with content, such as news sites or even our delicious account.

Google Docs: Google also has word processing programs online. These include spreadsheets, slideshow presentations, forms, etc, which can be private, open for all to see or shared with specific people. Choose a format and create...something. Share it with everyone in the department by going to Share on the top right side, and choosing sharing settings. You can open it to the public, to anyone you give the link to, or specific people, as well as choose if others can edit it. Check out what everyone has done and edit where allowed. (If you’re both viewing the document as they edit, you’ll see it change letter by letter. It can be fun.)

Bonus:
Google Alert: Ever wonder how Debby finds all the news articles that mention us? Chances are she uses an alert program. If you use Google Alerts to get notified of every time a website mentions Oak Park Public Library (or Doctor Who or Newbery Medal, etc), you can also have the notifications sent to your Google Reader.

Tumblr.: Kind of a blog, kind of a social media thing. It has the ease of sharing content that Twitter has, with added support for pictures and sounds. People were very very sad when it went down for a few days earlier this winter. As one person put it (and dozens of others reblogged): The difference between Facebook and Tumblr. Explore!

Write a post talking about your experiences. What do you think of OPPL Teens? Think Delicious will be useful? How could we use Google Docs, or even Tumblr., as a dept?

Wow. I can't believe I actually was able to do this. Great directions, Shelley! I tried some of the Flickr groups, like the "Library Signage" one and they are very helpful. It's a great way to browse through very specific images about a library topic, without all the extra weird hits you get through google image searches. One of the hardest parts for me is figuring out where images go after you save them. Sometimes you're given the option of picking a file to put them (Picnik) and sometimes not (Flickr), so that part confused me the most. I really loved Picnik and had never heard of it before. It really is super intuitive and pretty fun too, with the "buttering sandwiches" and "growing grass" uploading messages. We could use this tool for fun display signs, by printing out mock book covers for the kids that are eye-catching and funny (and have Oak Park specific jokes). We also could use these skills to create our SRP final report with a digital photo scrapbook for the Friends and maybe even the public?

So Much Snow - Revisited

Fun project! I don’t think my title goes well with my picture. One is inspirational and the other is somewhat depressing. It is hard to tell what the tone of the story will be. I’ll admit I did have some trouble with the textbox feature in Paint as far as aligning it and editing my text. I’ll have to make some more time to play around with it. I downloaded it to my laptop, so I have it handy.

JN's lesson 1 and 2

Oooh--- Mysterious...
DR will be jealous that my random quote title is from a Vonnegut quote:
"Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion. I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning up to do afterward."

I really enjoyed playing around with Picnik, and could have spent all afternoon with the fonts alone. Color Fields is amazing. I hadn't known about the Flickr App Garden, and look forward to exploring it more.

And (playing catch-up BIG TIME here) the following are some blogs I frequent for fun:
Jezebel
Jezebel for Boys
and this
& this never disappoint.
I also love Robert.

and it goes without saying...

late adventuring (unit 1)

Despite liking blogs, I don't use Google Reader or another feed or aggregator. That's mainly because I don't "follow" blogs; I like to check up on them every once in a while, but not devotedly.

For kiddie lit, my fave is Betsy Bird's SLJ spot, which others have mentioned.

The Atlantic's website has some bloggers I enjoy, including Andrew Sullivan, whose Daily Dish is moving to the Daily Beast next month.

Like Danny, I also like some sports sites with bloggers, such as ESPN and Deadspin.

Future Printz Winner Here

Like a lot of you, I really like Picnik's user interface. So many options, so easy to use! At home, I do all my photo editing with PaintShopPro (so much cheaper than Photoshop), but this is great for quick, on the fly edits.

I'm a long time Flickr user, so I love the constantly updated App Garden because there's always cool new stuff coming out. My favorite site is fd's toys, especially the Color Palette Generator, which is super useful for designing, and Motivator, which is just fun.

I've never tried their jigsaw puzzle before, but it could be neat to create a Ramona Nibblesmith puzzle for the kids!